WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 315: Unable to Call Father "Father"

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The military state exploited its citizens. It let them have enough supplies to survive and a few modest luxuries, but did not allow them even to dream of anything more. By driving its citizens relentlessly through rather forceful means, the military state had amassed enormous material wealth.

But even a fortune was no different from a pile of rocks if it simply sat in a warehouse.

What had that massive machine, which treated people like parts to produce staggering wealth, been working so tirelessly for?

"One question about the military state. Where did all that accumulated wealth go? The answer is right here!"

I said, patting the Cataphract.

The Cataphract was the military state's strategic weapon. Its entire exterior was clad in high-cost alchemical steel, giving it overwhelming defensive power, while its simple yet innovative design also granted it mobility. It was a rolling fortress.

Alongside combat clothing packets and military gear, the Cataphract was considered a Level Four strategic resource, the very essence of the military state. It possessed enough weight and power to easily surpass an armored cavalryman. Even a fine warhorse could not match the Cataphract in sheer strength.

Tyr looked around the interior and muttered, "I have seen something similar before. A tyrant of the Golden Kingdom, which once ruled, rode in luxurious carriages resembling this. I heard that making one required the labor of an entire castle, yet she owned dozens of them."

"The Cataphract is less luxurious, but more functional, so it probably costs about the same. And since they aren't for one person's use, there are more of them than those carriages."

"So they squeezed their people's blood dry to make such extravagant things. Hm. No wonder the country is in decline."

Hilde, who had just been accused by a vampire of squeezing the people's blood dry, protested as though she had been wronged.

"I'm innocent! This Cataphract isn't mine!"

"Even if it is not yours, you are a general. You can use it as you please."

"That's not true either! The Cataphract is one of the military state's strategic resources, so nobody can use it freely! That includes me, one of the Six Generals!"

It really was true.

The military state was a country that did not permit even its ruling-class generals to indulge in luxury. The accommodations provided for generals were shabbier than the room I had arranged through personal connections. Of course, generals could own property, so they could save their salaries and indulge in every conceivable luxury... But having to save your salary just to indulge in luxury was already far removed from ordinary luxury.

Still, Tyr, who was both a nation and an aristocrat herself, found it difficult to separate the ruling class from the state.

"But when you asked for it, they gave it to you at once."

"That was because the higher-ups approved it!"

"You are saying the same thing differently. If you may use it with permission, does that not make it yours?"

"There's a huuuuge difference! If I need upper approval just to move it, it isn't mine. And if I, the head of Public Safety, requested something this flashy, it would be rejected for insufficient grounds! This is a special case because they're giving us a Cataphract just to transport a few people! You are all enjoying a privilege I haven't even had!"

Hilde bounced up and down as she explained just how unfair this was. Swept up in her noisy mood, Tyr waved a hand dismissively.

"Very well, I understand enough. Stop jumping. The carriage is shaking."

"What?! There's no way this heavy lump of metal would shake just because a light and delicate girl like me stamps her feet! That's awful!"

She sounded exactly like a mischievous child speaking to the elderly woman next door. Considering that her opponent was the Progenitor of vampires, it looked like she had no regard for her life. Yet Tyr, surprisingly, listened to Hilde despite her annoyance.

"Yes, yes. I misspoke."

'Well, no wonder they're father and daughter; both are making such a fuss. I should soothe her for now. They say that to attack a general, you first capture the horse. If she is Hyu's daughter, it would be best to build a relationship with her in advance.'

My daughter? You really believe that?

This person was strange. She was a vampire, yet she did not know how to doubt a human's words at all. Hilde said I was her father, and Tyr accepted it without question. Did she not feel that something was off?

Well, I could roughly understand how she had reached that conclusion. It was probably like humans not suspecting livestock. Vampires were human, but they were also predators who regarded human blood as prey. Even if they were deceived, they could just eat the deceiver when the time came, so they had no choice but to let their guard down.

She might get badly burned one day. No, perhaps she already had. Still, what could I do? Everyone learned by getting hurt. Experiences carved into wounds lasted a long time.

After all, I was a kind yet strict king who even protected people's right to be hurt.

"...Wait, Tyrkanzyaka. You believe that absurd story?"

The regressor, however, was determined to take away even Tyr's right to be hurt. Folding her arms, she pointed out the contradiction.

"I don't know why Shadow Casket calls Hughes Father, but it doesn't make sense. There is no logic to it at all."

"What does not make sense?"

"Shadow Casket is one of the Six Generals known to have worked in the shadows since the military state was first established. If she was already active twenty-five years ago, when the military state was founded, then even if we estimate generously, she must be at least in her forties."

She fired that off sharply, as though she were a detective. It was such basic reasoning that even an elementary school student could have made it, but Tyr had failed to notice it.

'Ah, I forgot. I have always had difficulty grasping the ages of others....'

No, it was not that she had failed to notice. The number had simply been too small for her to care about. Matters measured in mere decades must have felt unfamiliar to a girl twelve centuries old.

'...Hm. What does age have to do with anything....'

As Tyr hesitated before a forbidden truth, the regressor took away even her right to hurt herself.

"That old lady only made herself look like that with her transformation ability. She's actually much older! Hmph, and she calls a man young enough to be her son Father. Isn't she embarrassed?"

Wow, that was harsh. Even if it was true, did she have no consideration at all? Her words were so cruel that even Tyr, beside her, suffered a slight emotional wound.

"Wow."

Hilde, who had been called an old lady to her face, let her mask slip a little. The smile vanished from her face as she glared at the regressor.

"That's harsh. Beyond rude, it's outright cruel. Really, now I understand why someone with such a pretty face is unpopular with women."

"I don't need popularity! I'd turn it down anyway!"

"Phew. I have a problem too, falling for such cheap provocation. This is why I need to wear a mask. If it isn't me, I can just let whatever they say pass by, but when I show my bare face, I get irritated right away."

Hilde quickly calmed herself, giving herself a pep talk inside her head.

"This is really, really confidential, so I wasn't going to say anything. But the slander against me has gone too far, so I have no choice. Shei, you think Eimeder is the military state's guardian angel, right? And that Zikhrund is an assassin whose identity no one knows."

"...Isn't that right?"

"Wrong. Zikhrund isn't me. Likewise, Eimeder isn't an angel."

Apparently properly provoked, Hilde began smoothly spilling information that only she knew, without anyone asking her to.

"The three heroes brought by the War Hero, Zikhrund, Eimeder, and Maximilien. Zikhrund is an assassin whose face nobody knows, and Eimeder is an angel who protects the military state? That cannot be true. They had to build a new country from the ashes. Who would believe in something as shapeless as faith?"

"Wait. You mean..."

"Yes. Zikhrund and Eimeder are both real people. Neither is in the military state now, but it seems the military state wants people to believe they still exist. That is why they made me play Zikhrund's role!"

'Or perhaps they left a place for them. So they could return whenever they wished.'

Hilde swallowed those words.

The Holy Maiden's guard, the Holy Sword Corps. When Yuel was excommunicated from the Sanctum, she surrendered all her authority and possessions as the Holy Maiden, but her divine power was not taken from her. No, even the Sanctum could not take it.

The Holy Maiden was God's agent and the executor of prophecy. Whether she had been excommunicated or run away from home, every step she took was a sacred event ordained by the Celestial God. Two members of the most faithful Holy Sword Corps attended the excommunicated Holy Maiden and reached the military state.

Those two were Eimeder and Zikhrund. Well, the two of them left within a few years after Yuel secluded herself with a man's corpse.

I could roughly guess why they had left. If I had been in their position, and the Holy Maiden I served was locked in her room making a complete fool of herself, any affection I had left would have dried up too. I had never met them myself, so I did not know the details, but it was probably something like that.

'It is not a very pleasant story from the perspective of someone like me, who was called in without knowing anything and made to work as they pleased~.'

"Who are they?"

Having heard unexpected information, the regressor listened closely to every word Hilde said.

Tch. I kept feeling this, but the regressor really knew very little for a regressor. Because of that, even after going through all kinds of trouble to glimpse her memories, I could not trust them completely.

She had supposedly formed a close relationship with the Sanctum in the previous round, yet she did not know the hidden history between the military state and the Sanctum? It was not as though everyone in the Sanctum had agreed to hide the information.

'Hm. Shall I stop here? If I say more, our poor Holy Maiden will be put in an even more difficult position.'

Believing she had seized enough of the initiative, Hilde closed her mouth. She smiled with her eyes at the regressor, who kept questioning her, placed an index finger to her lips, and tilted her head.

"I don't want to tell you~."

"What?!"

"Old ladies are very fickle, you know. My mood has suddenly gotten worse, so I don't want to say any more! Hmph!"

Hilde puffed out her cheeks and sharply turned her head away. The regressor stared at her in disbelief at such a childish display.

"Are you sulking right now? You're not a child."

"If I have to be called an old lady, I'd rather be a childish kid."

"Fine! Getting upset over something so trivial. I take it back!"

"Take it back? Can you gather up words once they have spilled out? Words are like swords. Pulling out a sword you plunged in does not heal the wound it leaves. The only way to wrap up a wound tightly is with a sincere apology."

In other words, she wanted an apology. With Hilde being stubborn, the regressor hissed softly through her teeth.

'Fine. Lowering my head once to get information is cheap! I was a little too harsh too!'

Having made her decision, the regressor dipped her head slightly and gave a calculating apology.

"I'm sorry. I... wasn't considerate."

"Hm. It's an apology dragged out of you, but I'll accept it. Be more careful next time."

"Ugh. Fine."

"That is right, Shei. You need to be more mindful of your words and actions."

"I'll remember that... Wait, Tyrkanzyaka? Why are you accepting an apology too?"

She had ended up apologizing to two people, but having completed her task, the regressor demanded new information.

"So where are the real Eimeder and Zikhrund? Where are they?"

"I don't know!"

"What?"

Hilde answered innocently.

"How would I know how my predecessor worked here or where they went after leaving this workplace? I was only called in halfway through and made to work! Don't forget. Whatever happened to the original Zikhrund, I took over that role!"

"Hey! Then nothing has changed!"

The regressor jumped up and pointed at Hilde.

"Either way, you're Shadow Casket, and you're older than Hughes. That's still the same!"

"Hehe. You caught me."

"Don't say, 'You caught me'! What have you been denying this whole time?"

"That I'm an old lady! I didn't want to be treated like that in front of Father!"

"For Hughes to be your father, he would have had to give birth to you before he was even born! Does that make any sense?"

Of course it did not.

Still, after going around in circles, she had finally noticed this reversal of cause and effect. I never expected the regressor to notice it before Tyr....

'It is not impossible. If Hyu is that very being.'

Huh?

That was strange. What thought was I reading right now?

'It explains everything. That mysterious power, and how he restored my heart even as he lost himself. The beating of a heart that stopped in the distant past. I am the only one in this age who knows of it, but... if Hyu is the King of Humanity, if he represents all humans, then he may have discovered it.'

Tyr believed people strangely easily. It was not because she was stupid or naive, but because an old house had lowered its threshold as much as possible to welcome new guests. That was why she believed all my nonsense in the Abyss and accepted the knowledge the regressor spoke of for the time being. Even Hilde's claim that I was her father had been accepted at face value.

'I clearly remember it. That strange man whose blood smelled of rust spoke to Hyu. He asked whether Hyu was the King of Humanity.'

Was that why? Tyr had not shown it, but she had kept the time Maximilien called me the King of Humanity in her heart. To use now.

Fine. Since I was the King of Humanity, I could say that Tyr's wisdom was shining through right now.

But.

'Then it makes sense for that child to call Hyu Father! If she was born before he was born, then she must be a child of the previous King of Humanity!'

Why would you make sense of it that way?!

Footnotes:

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